Lawyer says paper proves O J Simpson's innocence

A lawyer for O.J. Simpson says in a new document that evidence of Simpson's innocence was held back in the 1995 trial in which Simpson was acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles.

F. Lee Bailey wrote the 20,000-word document in 2007 as a proposal for a book that never materialised. He decided recently to publish it, and it first appeared Sunday on his website and that of the Portland Press Herald newspaper.

In the document, Mr Bailey tells of four people who could have bolstered Simpson's case but never testified. Simpson was found not guilty in the trial, but Bailey says it's important to prove him innocent in the court of public opinion.

Bailey says the document got more than 20,000 hits the first day it was online.